His
family name was Brooke, but he added the 'Popham' on 6 May 1904 by Royal Warrant in
memory of a much admired ancestor. He was
educated at Haileybury and Sandhurst, being commissioned in 1898 and shortly
afterwards, fighting in the South African War during 1899-1900, serving in the Orange Free
State, Transvaal, Orange River Colony and Cape Colony. Attached
to the Air Battalion during the manoeuvres of 1911 he decided to learn to fly,
gaining RAeC Certificate No 108 on 18 July 1911.He was the first Commandant of both the RAF Staff College at Andover and
the Imperial Defence College.As
AOC, Fighting Area as which he was in command of the whole air defence of the UK
and established a chain of acoustic listening stations around the country well
before the introduction of Radar.Fortunately
his objections to fighters with enclosed cockpits and armed with eight machine
guns did not find favour. He retired at
his own request and for two years held the appointment of Governor of Kenya.

As C in C,
Far East, he spent thirteen months desperately trying to build up the defences
of the region. But unfortunately for him the decisions effecting the defence of
Singapore had been taken long before his appointment and with the resources
available there was little he could do to stop the Japanese advance in December
1941.From 1944 until 1946 he was
President of the NAAFI Council and also acted as Inspector-General of the ATC
(19?-?)